11 comments:

With regards to this subject, I actually think I made a dent in a coworker's conviction regarding heseuss's return. While helping her with some boxes, I started doing some crazy dances to the gospel music she was listening to. (btw, I'm an overt atheist, but I try not to be -overly- obnoxious about it) After laughing at my tomfoolery, she asked if I'd make it to his (guess who 'he' is . . .) return, a reference to the song that was playing. Just as an aside, but spoken in all sincerity, I asked her if she knew how many generations had passed that thought they were the ones to meet him. And it seemed that I threw something in her stream of consciousness that didn't get washed away, if only judging from her behavior. So even when not deliberately going for the jugular, it's possible to awaken reason in some folks. Kinda encouraging to an amoral uninspired creature like myself^^

Don has the tape... I haven't heard any updates. However, I have downloaded the mp3 file and it is a full hour and a half.

Since the only thing you will miss after the first half hour is seeing my sexy self and my wild gesticulations with a bottle of water, my advice is to listen to the rest of the audio while going through the slides. You should be able to figure out where I am at any point.

Hey Russell, as a fellow atheist parent, I have this fantasy that someday my kids' school will invite in people of various religious views - sort of like what they do now with careers - and I'd volunteer to be the designated heathen. I'm curious to find out what your dad said as part his talk to the humanities classes. Is that available? I think that would be a most excellent blog post.

I emailed your question to my dad, who said:"I've never written it down, and I don't present any slides. It's all off the top of my head. I have occasionally thought about writing it down but haven't gotten around to it."

I've heard his presentation before, and from what I can remember, it goes something like this:

First he opens with a short story from Bertrand Russell, the opening of "A Free Man's Worship," about a completely amoral God who creates humanity to entertain himself and then wipes them all out with a comet.

Then he introduces his work as a scientist, and explains that religion is set up to answer two things: Questions of fact and questions of value.

Then he explains how science answers questions of fact more thoroughly and more satisfactorily than religion has ever done, and points out that God's domain has shrunk continuously throughout history as science explored new frontiers. He does a brief overview of what we know about the big bang, evolution, and abiogenesis, while also pointing out that there are many things we don't know but may still learn in the future.

Then he talks about questions of value, and a little about societies and cultures, and where religion is not really a good moral guide.

Right now I play World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2; in the past I was very big into Starcraft and Warcraft 3. I'm not a tournament level player by any means; but I have some general notions about strategy that make me enjoy analyzing the games and figuring out theory -- grasping what kinds of units should be mobilized in particular situations. I like to watch game replies and kibitz on occasion. :)

The guy who was talking about Bible translations at the end was Dr. James Dee.

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PLEASE NOTE: The Atheist Experience has moved to a new location, and this blog is now closed to comments. To participate in future discussions, please visit http://www.freethoughtblogs.com/axp.The Atheist Experience is a weekly live call-in television show sponsored by the Atheist Community of Austin. This independently-run blog (not sponsored by the ACA) features contributions from current and former hosts and co-hosts of the show.